Are you being underpaid state pension? How to check

Steve Webb’s firm LCP has launched an online tool to help older married women work out if they are being paid correctly. Find out more here.

But Webb stresses that the website is simply designed as a useful tool, and anyone with any doubt about the amount of pension they are receiving should contact the Department for Work and Pensions. It’s details are here.

The new scandal involves married women who reached state pension age before April 2016.

They are entitled to 60 per cent of the state pension their husband gets.

The boost dates back to an era when many more wives were financially dependent on their husbands and did not pay enough National Insurance contributions to earn a full pension.

Before 2008, married women had to claim the extra income themselves when their husband started collecting his pension.

From then on, the DWP was supposed to pay the upgrade automatically.

But former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb said figures suggested that around 130,000 married women – whose husbands were collecting the full basic state pension of £134.25 a week – were getting pensions lower than the £80.45 a week they should receive.

Sir Steve, a former Lib Dem MP, said: ‘It is truly shocking that thousands of women are being short-changed on their state pensions.

‘The system is highly complex and few will be aware of the special rules for married women.

‘It is time for the DWP to take this issue seriously and launch a full investigation.’

Former Pensions Minister Sir Steve Webb has campaigned for state pension fairness

Sir Steve, now a partner at pension consultants Lane Clark & Peacock, said widows and divorcees could also be missing out because they too are entitled to a pension rate based on their husband’s contributions.

Jean Hayes, 75, should have had her pension increased from £60.72 a week to £77.45 when her husband Richard, 77, retired in 2008. The DWP said she was getting the correct amount.

Yet mother-of-two Mrs Hayes, who lives near Andover in Hampshire, has now been given £8,822.41 after the department admitted it had been paying her a lower rate for 12 years.

The retired retail worker said: ‘I am pleased I have got it back at last, but I am cross because I could have done with that money when I was entitled to it.

‘I could have gone on better holidays, now I might be too old.’

A DWP spokesman said: ‘We are aware of a number of cases where individuals have been underpaid state pension.

‘We reimbursed those affected as soon as errors were identified.

‘We are checking for further cases, and if any are found awards will be reviewed and any arrears paid.’

Share or comment on this article:

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

There are Front Page Template, Sidebar Page Layout, Top Bar, Header Image/Overlay/Advertisement, Social Profiles and Banner Slider. Also supports popular plugins like WooCommerce, bbPress, Contact Form 7 and many more. It is also translation ready.